Key Russian oil hub suspends operations after Ukrainian drone strike, SBU source says
Editor's note: The story was updated with a statement by an SBU source.
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones struck Primorsk, Russia’s largest oil-loading port on the Baltic Sea, overnight on Sept. 12, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
Primorsk in Leningrad Oblast serves as a key hub for Russia's "shadow fleet" of aging tankers used to avoid sanctions, the source said. Roughly 60 million tons of oil pass through the port every year, bringing Russia roughly $15 billion, the source added.
After the Ukrainian drone strike, fires broke out at one of the vessels and a pumping station, forcing the suspension of oil shipments, according to the source. This could allegedly cost Russia up to $41 million a day.
SBU drones also successfully struck three oil pumping stations that are part of a pipeline system funneling crude to the Ust-Luga port terminal in Leningrad Oblast, the source claimed.
Primorsk lies roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles) from St. Petersburg and over 900 kilometers (550 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
The statement comes after Russian officials and media reported a large-scale drone attack targeting Leningrad Oblast, Moscow, and other areas overnight on Sept. 12.
Russian air defenses intercepted 221 Ukrainian drones across the country, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed the morning after the strike.
Residents of Leningrad Oblast reportedly said the attack was one of the most massive strikes on the region since the start of the full-scale war in 2022.
Around 30 drones were shot down over Leningrad Oblast, regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko said.
Drone debris crashed at separate locations in Tosno, a town 53 kilometers (33 miles) southwest of St. Petersburg, but caused no casualties or damage, he claimed. Fragments and wreckage also landed in other villages in the region, including Vsevolozhsk, Pokrovskoye, and Uzmino.
Earlier in the night, Drozdenko said that air defenses were at work over the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg.
The attack caused a fire on a vessel in the Primorsk Port, Drozdenko reported. He claimed the fire was extinguished and that there is no threat of flooding or oil spills.
Drozdenko later reported that the attack caused a fire to break out at a pumping station in Primorsk. He said it was extinguished without casualties.
The drone threat in the region forced St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport to shut down — an increasingly common procedure amid intensifying Ukrainian drone strikes. Nearly 50 flights have been disrupted or canceled due to the closure.
Drones also targeted the Russian capital. At least nine Ukrainian drones have been shot down near Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.
Sobyanin said on Telegram that emergency crews were headed to the site where the drone debris fell. The mayor did not provide details as to where the drones were shot down or provide information on any damage.
Russian Telegram channels, citing resident accounts, reported explosions in the communities of Mozhaysk and Dedovsk in Moscow Oblast, located just west of the outskirts of the capital.
Another wave of drones attacked the Russian city of Smolensk, according to officials and local residents. Smolensk Oblast Governor Vasily Anokhin said air defense units were repelling a drone attack over the region, but gave no further information.
Smolensk residents reported explosions in the city. In footage posted to social media, eyewitnesses claimed that the drones targeted a nearby Lukoil facility. Video shows smoke and flames rising from a large fire at an undisclosed site.
Anokhin did not mention oil facilities or any possible targets in his report.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 85 drones were downed over Bryansk Oblast, 42 over Smolensk Oblast, 28 over Leningrad Oblast, 18 over Kaluga Oblast, 14 over Novgorod Oblast, and nine over the Moscow and Oryol oblasts.
Drones were also shot down over Belgorod, Rostov, Tver, Pskov, Tula, and Kursk oblasts, the ministry said.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Ukraine has previously launched drones towards Moscow with limited success in engaging military targets in the region. Ukraine has also deliberately shifted its drone strategy in recent months to disrupt Russian aviation operations and make the war visible to the Russian population.
The attack on Russia comes just days after Russia launched a record drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing a woman and her newborn child and injuring 20 others. The attack also damaged Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers building in central Kyiv for the first time in the full-scale war.
Russia has increased drone attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent months, regularly launching over 500 attack drones in one night.
Overnight on Sept. 10, Russian drones violated Polish airspace, forcing Poland's Air Force to down the drones for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Nineteen Russian drones were recorded crossing into Poland, in what Polish officials describe as a "deliberately targeted" attack.
German media outlets Spiegel and Welt reported on Sept. 11 that the Russian drones shot down were reportedly headed for Rzeszow Airport, a key logistics hub for aid to Ukraine.
